Rescue work at the site at Mahim in Mumbai on Tuesday. (PTI)

Mumbai, June 12: Less than a month ago, Mumbai lawyer Rizwan Merchant had put his protective arms around Manyata as husband Sanjay Dutt readied to go to jail.

Yesterday, Manyata was unable to console Merchant as he readied to bury his mother, wife and teenaged son.

The three died when their five-storeyed building on Cadell Road collapsed on Monday evening, hours after the first monsoon torrents swept over Mumbai. Their bodies were recovered late last morning.

Faraz, 13, his mother Asifa, 50, and grandmother Tahira, 78, were in their second-floor apartment when the landmark Altaf Mansion near the 200-year-old Mahim Dargah came crashing down. The mansion was built some 30 years ago.

After working hard to defend Sanjay in the run-up to his surrender in the 1993 blasts case, Rizwan and family had gone for a vacation to Turkey around May end. He returned a few days ago but his family landed in Mumbai early on Monday.

That day, Faraz, Asifa and Tahira stayed home but Rizwan, along with lawyer-son Faiz and daughter Fiza, was at work in the Fort area adjacent to Colaba.

“They were preparing to go home when a neighbour called them,” said Rosemin Khan, a neighbour of Rizwan’s brother who lives in Bandra, about 3km from Mahim.

When Rizwan, Faiz and Fiza reached Mahim, rescue work was under way in pouring rain.

“He called Faraz and the boy answered the phone — he was trapped in the debris. He said it was dark but he was okay, but he didn’t know where his mother and grandmother were,” said Rosemin.

Rizwan stood in pouring rain all night, making calls to Faraz. In the early hours of Tuesday, the phone died out.

“When Manyata drove down to Mahim a little after sunrise, he told her Faraz was okay but he was not sure about his wife and mother. Manyata left seven staff members by Rizwan’s side. He had been like a rock, standing by her before and after Sanju’s surrender,” said Kavita Fernandes, a friend of the Dutts.

A little after Manyata left, rescue workers brought out Asifa and Tahira’s bodies. Around 11am, they spotted a limp Faraz. He had suffocated in the debris.

“Rizwan kept mumbling ‘he is so cold, he is so cold’. He kept checking for his heartbeat and then broke down,” said Kavita.

On Tuesday evening, when the bodies were taken to Rizwan’s brother’s home in Bandra, Manyata and Sanjay’s sister Priya came to pay their respects.

“Manyata hugged Rizwan as he sobbed uncontrollably when the funeral procession started,” said Rosemin.

Rizwan, 52, had contested on a Samjawadi Party ticket in the 2009 Maharashtra polls but lost. He is the counsel for Dawood aide Mohammad Dossa in a separate case related to the Mumbai blasts.

Residents of the neighbourhood have blamed illegal structural changes in the building by a car showroom housed on the ground floor of Altaf Mansion for Monday’s accident. But Mumbai’s municipal corporation said it was too early to say anything. A probe is on.